Omar is a population geneticist whose research focuses on the study of basic evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation in pathogens and host populations and contribute to their adaptive evolution. His group uses a combination of computer simulations, simple mathematical models and statistical analysis on genomic data to infer the evolutionary history of populations, to map genetic bases of characters and to perform inferences on the impact of selection in pathogens and hosts. Omar's current focus is on working at the intersection of the discovery of variants in the genomes of pathogen and hosts that result from the interaction of organisms and can largely impact the outcome of infection at the population level.